Friday, September 18, 2009

Chipotle BBQ sandwiches

I don't know about you, but every once in a while I crave the smoky taste of a good barbecue sandwich. Yesterday was one of those days. I was pretty busy -work, teeth cleaning at the dentist, a much needed hair cut- so I didn't get home until almost 9 o'clock. I needed something simple and quick to make. Plus, my local supermarket was offering boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.99 a pound... how could I resist the urge to stock up on it? I couldn't, so I stocked up. I also had some potato buns leftover from Sunday's cookout and some red cabbage that -yes, you guessed it- was given to me by the co-op guys. So I made an Iron Chef night out of it and put together these sweet and spicy chicken sandwiches and some spicy slaw (recipe to follow, hopefully today, if not tomorrow.) The chicken, thanks to a kick ass technique learned from Cooking Light magazine, tastes like it has been slow cooked for hours but only needs to be cook for about 15 minutes. Now THAT is what I need when I'm tired and hungry and it's 9 o'clock at night. Don't let the lenght of the recipe fool you -it's easy.

Pour a quarter inch of water in a large skillet. Add 1 teaspoon cumin, 4 sliced garlic cloves, and chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper to taste), cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook 10 minutes. Drain, discard water and cut chicken across grain into thin slices. Set aside.

Remove 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can of chiles and set aside. Remove 3 chipotle chiles from can and finely chop and set aside. Whatever chiles and sauce you don't use, store in a tapperware in the fridge, they last forever.

Me, in a nutshell

I'm a cook, a writer, a journalist, a daughter, a girlfriend, a cat owner, a drinker, a sister, a traveler, a dual citizen, a skier, a scuba diver, a photographer and, as of recently, a Swiss resident.